Alive Again
by DoctorPiper
Summary: Prompt: "Somehow Nora comes back from the dead and her and Billie can be together...(ends in cuddles please)"


**Author's Note:** _So I asked for Foxxay/Hotgomery/Bananun prompts on tumblr, and I got a couple! Here is a fanfic I did for a Hotgomery prompt. Now I haven't seen the first season in a little while since I've become so obsessed with the show, but I tried my best to really get the personality of these characters across. Also, I wrote this in first person and in the present, both of which turned out to be quite difficult, so please bear with me if it's not that great! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy! _

Billie's been visiting the house for a while now. She'll stay for a few hours then leave and not come back anywhere from a couple of days to a few weeks. It's difficult when she's gone. No one here likes me all that much, and I can't stand to be anywhere near Charles. I miss my kitchen, my dining room, my living room. It's all so different and confusing now. Half the time, I have no idea where or when I am. But Billie...the lovely, sweet, yet blunt, Billie Dean Howard. Oh how I do adore her company. She speaks with me about a vast amount of things and doesn't look at me with anything but genuine kindness. She truly is a breath of fresh air that I hadn't breathed for decades. Whenever she's around, I feel sane and in control of myself.

When she leaves, however, the air becomes thick yet again, metaphorically speaking, of course. Everything physical I feel, or think I feel, is simply the ghost of what my true body used to experience. I await her return with such anticipation that I can hardly contain it. I resist the urge to pace quickly around the house, room to room, floor to floor. Sometimes I even feel so much anguish at her absence and the obscurity of her return that I have to prevent myself from becoming violent. I've gone mad in this house. Hell, I was mad _before_ I died. Now I'm standing at a window on the second floor, hands behind my back and my gaze cast downward at the street outside. I want to leave. I want to simply run out of this horrid place and make my way to freedom, to peace.

It's been a few minutes, or maybe it has been a few hours, I'm horrible with time now, and I see Billie walking towards the house. A smile spreads across my face, and my eyes begin to water out of sheer joy as I quickly make my way downstairs and to the front door. When I open the door, Billie is entering through the front gate and smiling warmly at me. I stand in the doorway, almost bouncing with energy. Billie's back! And it has been less than 24 hours since she was last here.

"Hello Nora," she says, still smiling and looking at me with those beautiful, dark brown eyes. She pulls me into an embrace and I blithely return it.

"What brings you back so soon?" I ask once we have pulled apart. My heart has swelled and is racing, and I can feel my cheeks becoming slightly warmer. I have been thinking about Billie constantly for weeks now, and I have discovered that my feelings for her are...peculiar. I don't quite understand what the feelings are yet, but I like it. I care for her.

Billie's smile becomes a bit sad. She's trying to look happy, but I can tell she isn't. My stomach drops, and my expression becomes worried.

"I came back because...I need to speak with you about something. Something very important."

I simply nod and gesture for her to enter ahead of me. "Thank you," she says as she touches my cheek gently and walks by. I follow after her and can still feel the tingle of her fingers after she has already entered the dining room.

I sit beside her and ask, "What's the matter, Billie?" Her hands are placed on the table, gaze fixed on them, and it seems as if she is struggling to speak. I follow my instincts and take one of her hands in both of mine. She turns her head to me, making eye contact. "Billie, dear, are you...are you crying?" Her eyes are shining with tears and one slowly falls down her soft skin. I lift one hand from hers and caress her face, wiping away the tear.

"Nora, I..." she swallows, trying to keep her voice steady. "I'm struggling with something that is very, very difficult to handle and to understand."

"What is it? Can I help?" my eyes flash back and forth, looking into both of hers.

She closes her eyes, lowers her head slightly, and shakes it. "No, Nora...you can't because...you're the problem."

I snatch my hands away and place them stiffly in my lap, straightening my posture. "What...what do you mean _I'm_ the problem?"

"Oh, Nora, no, I'm-" she sighs. "I'm sorry. I understand how that must sound. It's not your _fault_. I...I've been thinking about you. A lot. I enjoy every minute I spend with you, and leaving you gets harder and harder every time I have to do so. I don't come back very often because I don't like the pain of leaving."

"I don't understand," I say, relaxing a bit.

Billie's expression becomes slightly hard. "I have feelings for you, Nora," she says stiffly. "And it's difficult because I want to be with you, and I can't. Because you're dead."

The medium's last three words puncture my heart, and I cannot stop tears from forming in my eyes. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, my thoughts are jumbled, and I feel physical pain in my chest.

"I have to leave. And I can't come back," Billie stands as she speaks and walks away. "Goodbye, Nora." A few moments later, I hear the door close behind her.

I spend the next minute quickly analyzing my emotions. Feelings? For me? Be _with_ me? My heart races again as memories of past embraces flash through my mind and fantasies of kisses begin to take over. Am I in love with Billie Dean Howard? Is that what these feelings all this time have been? I don't believe I have ever _truly_ been in love before, so doesn't it make sense if I have been in love with her and didn't even know it?

I have to know. For sure. I need to see Billie again, I need to hug her, I need to kiss her. I need to do _something_.

I run out of the dining room and out the door, forgetting all of the rules I have been bound to in the afterlife by that damned house. I call out her name, desperately, pleading. I reach the front gate. I can see her. She has almost reached the corner of the next street.

"Billie!" I cry out, my voice cracking as I step over the imaginary boundary and run towards her. I expect to find myself back in the house not a second later, running down the hallway, but instead I am still running down the sidewalk. When I realize what has happened, I stop and look around. I'm only a few yards from the medium.

"Billie," I say again, doubt and slight fear in my voice.

Hearing the sound of my voice so close to her, Billie turns around. She sees me and her eyes widen. She slowly walks towards me.

"Nora?" she asks as she reaches me and looks me up and down. "How did you...are you really here?"

I look at my hands, then back at Billie, then my surroundings yet again. I swallow and nod. "Billie, I'm scared, what's happening?"

"I, I don't know, Nora. You...You've made it out. I think...Nora, darling, I think you're free!" She smiles at me. God, that bright, heart melting smile.

"Then why am I still here? Shouldn't my spirit have moved on?" My breathing becomes slightly rapid. For so long I have been craving freedom, and yes, while I may have acquired it, I am still on this plane of existence. Wandering the world as a ghost is _not_ what I had in mind for my freedom. Then I realize...I'm _breathing_. Not in the habitual, ghostly sense like I had been doing for so many years now. I am actually, physically breathing. I feel air rush into me and my lungs expand. I look at my arm and push down with my finger. My skin turns white from the pressure and _real_ blood rushes back to return the color. I look at Billie as I realize there is one last thing to check. Slowly, cautiously, and hesitantly, I lift my hand to the back of my head. I feel hair. That's it. Just hair. No bullet wound, no blood, just my own hair.

"Billie, I'm...I'm _alive_. How did this happen?"

Billie's face has become so bright, and she beams at me. She begins to cry again, but this time she seems happy. She covers her mouth as she starts to sob. "Oh god, Nora." She wraps her arms around me tightly and cries into my shoulder. I slowly wrap my arms around her and finally melt into her embrace.

We pull apart, and Billie says, "Come home with me."

"I would love to," I respond, smiling, and we both walk away from the Murder House. I am finally done with that place. Forever.

When we reach Billie's home, we sit at her kitchen table and begin to talk. Her house is wonderful. It's not large, but it is not small either. There aren't too many modern contraptions around, only enough to be necessary. "I don't know how this happened, Nora, but I'm glad it did. Maybe whatever deity or deities may exist decided to give you another chance at life. You're a pure soul, Nora, despite what you have done in the past. You've just struggled because of those who surrounded you."

I nod, but I'm unsure of myself. Billie has such confidence in me, and it makes me feel...loved.

"Billie?"

"Yes?"

I look down to my lap, take a deep breath, and confess, "I think I love you."

There is silence for a moment before I hear Billie stand from her seat. Before I can look up on my own, Billie takes my chin in her hand and lifts it up to press her lips gently yet firmly on my own. I bring my hands up to her face, and as our kiss deepens, my hands tangle themselves in her beautiful, blonde hair. I stand, and Billie wraps her arms tightly around my waist, pulling our bodies close together. In between kisses, she whispers, "I love you, too, Nora."

She leads me to her living room, where she has a large couch and a gorgeous fireplace. Once the fire is lit, we sit together on the couch. Billie is leaning against one armrest, and I have wrapped myself around her, head leaning comfortably on her chest, her arms engulfing me in a tight and safe embrace. We talk about many things. I tell her about what it was like growing up, and she explains contemporary things to me like television and Internet, a concept of which I still don't understand, all the while leaving kisses on the top of my head and stroking my hair. We stay there well into the night until we get tired enough to sleep. Once in her bedroom, we hold each other and drift off into sleep. I haven't rested in almost 90 years...

_**Author's Note:**__ Thanks for reading! Feel free to send any Hotgomery/Bananun/Foxxay prompts to me via private messaging here on or messaging me on my tumblr ( .com). :)_


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